It’s time to start thinking about summer and the outdoor festivities that come with my favorite time of year! One thing that our family enjoys, and I’m sure you’d agree, is the thrill of roasting marshmallows on a warm summer evening or making s’mores around the campfire. I have been wanting to organize a S’Mores Party for a long time, and with the help of Chinet®, I was finally able to do so! You may remember the Garden and Seed Exchange party and the Bunny Breakfast that we did last year. I continue to have a strong appreciation for Chinet® Cut Crystal® disposable tableware – it looks clean and classy, while also offering flexibility and reassurance, particularly when it comes to outdoor events! I like to supplement the disposable tableware with a few glass display pieces and some decorative accents for a cohesive and elegant overall look. Today, I’m sharing all the details of our S’mores Party, along with links to recipes and free printables. Plus, at the end of the post, you’ll have an opportunity to win a great gift pack along with a gift card to throw your own summer event! My jumping off point for this party came from the new-to-me Comfort Cup® by Chinet® Insulated Hot Cups – I created printable sleeves to fit a s’mores and campfire theme and the party developed from there! Love me a hot cup and they’re disposable too for easy cleanup!! You’ll be able to download and print the sleeves at the bottom of the post. These jumbo S’mores Cupcakes make a great impact on the dessert table. With brown paper liners, toasted meringue frosting, graham cracker crumbs, and themed toppers, they are a total standout! I dressed up the drinks by wrapping a ribbon sash around a glass bottle of milk and adding a chalkboard sticker label to the front. Stripey straws and clear, swirled glasses absolutely complete the look! I will say again how much I appreciate that Chinet® Cut Crystal® tableware is all coordinated and the clear “glassware” matches any theme – I really like every last thing to blend cohesively! Nuts and popcorn in sweet little cupcake liners I snagged in Paris. So cute! S’mores bark keeps people happy. It adds dimension to the table and makes snacking easy for those less inclined to roast up their marshmallows and bite into sticky s’mores! In addition to my excitement over the hot cups, I was also pleasantly surprised that the Chinet® Cut Crystal® line now includes stemless wine glasses! Having a good appreciation for drinking a nice glass of wine from a wine glass, I’m glad I no longer have to choose between a plastic cup and breakable wine glass. And what’s more – these glasses make excellent parfait cups!! I used them for some easy S’mores Cheesecake Parfaits and they turned out just right! Now, let’s talk about the s’mores station!! I am totally crushing on the new Chinet® Classic White® Chip & Dip party tray because it’s also perfect for all your s’mores fixins!!! We have peanut butter cups, chocolate bars, marshmallows, heath bars, and white chocolate chips. Stuff the candy into the middle of your marshmallow before roasting or simply pop it between your graham crackers when you’re smooshing your toasty sandwich together! This plastic tray is nice and sturdy and classic white – I hot glued on a little black pom pom trim to fancy it up. Frankly, I’d like to keep this on my table year round! All the kinds of graham crackers in nifty little boxes were set out, too. I can’t emphasize enough how much kiddos like choices! If you would like to throw a S’mores Party of your own, I have included links to the recipes and free printables below:

Putting this party together was such a thrill! It’s fun to create a celebration just for the sake of getting together with family and friends! I love combining a few specialty items with stylish, convenient disposable tableware to make party planning easier and outdoor entertaining more feasible. You can find tons of additional inspiration at My Chinet and NOW, one of you is also going to win a huge Chinet® gift pack (approximate retail value $50) PLUS a $100 Visa gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, leave a comment below sharing how Chinet® Cut Crystal® would elevate your next get-together!

Entry Instructions:

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You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older (or nineteen (19) years of age or older in Alabama and Nebraska). Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 2 business days to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Tomorrow I finally get to share what all the S’MORES fuss is about – you don’t want to miss it! There has been quite the preparation and one thing I recently shared was a super non-dairy frosting that’ll hold up in warmer weather and it also doubles as a great stand-in for “marshmallow” cupcake frosting!

You can find the details for White Mountain Frosting by clicking over to this post. Today’s post is going to be short and sweet! Cupcakes love toppers and I think that festive toppers can really take your party table up a notch – my kids always oooh and ahhhh over them! I created some chalkboard-ish “Gone Camping” printable cupcake toppers and would love to share them for your own personal use! These cupcake toppers print out onto a sheet of Avery round 2″ labels. This makes it easy to peel off the sticker label and pop them onto some card stock rounds. You could certainly just print them onto card stock instead and cut them out yourself. I then cut scalloped circles using my Cricut to back the labels. Once I stuck the labels onto the rounds, I just hot glued them onto lollipop sticks and they’re ready to be put into the cupcakes. Super simple!

A children’s play kitchen. Is there anything sweeter? Maybe it’s just me – maybe it’s where my love of food and cooking and baking first developed – in this little play kitchen that my dad built for me when I was a bitty girl. It used to be white and I remember that I had a very special ceramic tea set that I arranged just so and absolutely adored until a neighbor kid came over and broke one of the cups, which ruined the whole perfect set, and I was heartbroken. But I ramble. The point is – kids love play kitchens. My girls have had this one set up for them and it’s always been played with here and there. I painted it blue years ago, but the color just never quite went with the playroom and I started feeling really displeased with how sad it had become. So I gave it a makeover. We’re in the midst of turning our large playroom into a media/play room and making the play kitchen a focal point was one of my first priorities. I’m excited to show you the whole room when we get it all finished, but for today, I can say that the kitchen area is finished and I LOVE it! As do the kids, almost as important. 😉

I painted the kitchen with two coats of semi-gloss latex paint in “red apple” from the hardware store. It was a pre-mixed color and it is exactly the bright, saturated red I was looking for. Someone on instagram asked about the kind of paint as she was concerned about paint lines. I was less concerned about paint lines since this kitchen set has been painted quite a few times and seen more than 30 years of play, but I can tell you I always use a Purdy brand paint brush – they’re the best for finish work!

A coordinating enamelware cake stand and some hand-packed ice cream containers give the refrigerator a lift and also give the girls some containers to stuff things into (do your kids love to stuff containers, also??) I also added a big red mason jar (from Jo-Anns) with some humongous red and white striped straws to the kitchen shelf – gotta use ’em everywhere while they’re still all the rage, right?

A new “Menu” hanging over the kitchen pulls the ensemble together. I’m sharing the complete DIY Playroom Chalkboard tutorial over at the Jo-Ann’s blog, The Creative Spark. You can find all the details over there! It’s even magnetized so the kiddos can pop restaurant orders up on it as they’re preparing the food.

Speaking of restaurant orders, this is THE preferred play kitchen activity of my girls. They just looooove to tell you all the specials and write up your order and post signs ALL OVER THE HOUSE letting you know where and when to arrive for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I made them some printable cards where they can write little menus or note their guests’ orders. Some cards are white and some are “chalkboard” for use with pens or pencils…or chalk. There are two different cards – one has a blank box at the top where they can write their restaurant’s name or whatever! You can download and print out these cards if you’d like. Click here for the FREE printable!

So, tell me what you think. Do your kids have a playroom kitchen? Is it a focal point in the room? What’s their favorite imaginary game to play in their kitchen?

Hi friends! The girls and I got slammed with the flu so this is going to be short and sweet! Yesterday, I promised you the printables for our Easter party, so let’s get them to ya! You will need to click on each link below and then print. You can print all of the Easter party printables as many items as you need. They make take a minute to load in your browser because the files are large for printing, but just hang in there and you’ll get what you need.

To make the bunny cups, print a set of small bunny ears onto heavy cardstock, cut out, and apply with hot glue. Add a pom pom tail. Cut a small piece of black cardstock into three sections on each side of the center to form whiskers. Curl gently with fingernail. Hot glue onto the cup and finish with a small pink felted wool ball, pom pom, or a circle of pink cardstock.

There are three printables for the small dessert plates – each printable has one chalkboard phrase circle and one colored dot circle. Print onto heavy cardstock, cut out, blast with a light coat of spray adhesive and press onto the bottom of the dessert plate.

We also have the larger circles for the dinner plates – one chalkboard “Bunny Bites” to use for display and polka dots in each color for “cake stands”. You can also use them for the dinner plates for regular serving, just as I did with the smaller plates.

Here is a printable for two sets of large bunny ears, nose, and whiskers to glue onto plates for cutie pie masks. Bunny Mask Printable!

And finally – the chalkboard sign. This should fit in an 8×10 frame and makes a nice backdrop for your party. Enjoy!

If you love these printables and decide to use them, I’d love to see how your party turns out! Don’t forget to see the full Bunny Breakfast Easter party and enter to win a $100 Amex gift card + a FULL set of Chinet Cut Crystal tableware!! Go here for the party details and giveaway!

Around this time of year, I start gathering the supplies to put together easy, perfect-for-anyone gifts. These gifts, which can be given to a hostess, co-worker, neighbors, and teachers, have to be quick to assemble, but also have to have that “special” handmade look. Avery provided me with a big ‘ol stack of various printable labels to get me going on my holiday organization, and you should have seen how giddy I was as I sorted through them, trying to decide which to use (or which to hoard) first! Today I’m sharing two variations for Hot Cocoa Printable Labels.

I’ve layered the makings for hot cocoa in mason jars for many years and it’s always a hit! This year, I used 12-ounce mason jars for individual hot cocoa servings. When the jar is opened (and marshmallows removed), you can add 1 cup of boiling water right into the jar and have a rich, warm treat ready to drink! I set out a group of jars and added each layer of ingredients, assembly line style–the jars were ready in no time. On their own, the layered hot cocoa mix is pretty, but adding a custom label to the top of the jar and a nice ribbon gives the gift that extra special touch.

I used Avery Design & Print Online to create these labels. The design interface has an abundance of backgrounds (like this awesome houndstooth), font styles, color customization, and image customization options. You can choose from their many images/backgrounds/etc. or even upload your own images and add them right into the design. For these labels, I purchased the hot cocoa image online, saved it to my computer, and had it uploaded to my label template all in a matter of minutes. And THEN…you just hit print right from the online screen. Pop your sheet of labels into the printer and out come the finished labels.

I absolutely love the glossy finish on these 2″ labels and they are the perfect fit for the tops of these regular mason jar lids.

Alternately, you may want to wrap up a housewares gift set for someone and include hot cocoa mix or simply package it differently than in the jars. I created some Hot Cocoa Mix tags that can be added to a mug handle or to the outside of a package. I also designed these tags using the Avery Design & Print Online–I started with a pre-set design and customized the text and graphic to make it my own.

These printable tags include the little plastic strings to hook the tag right on. Love that–don’t be surprised if you see these tags pop up again and again. I have visions of little dresses all lined up and labeled with custom tags–seriously, the tags alone are going to inspire sewing projects ’cause I’m in love with organization like that.

I like that the tags have a little more space where instructions or ingredients can be included along with a holiday greeting. You can download either of my two label sheets below:

Once you download the PDF label files, simply print onto the corresponding label sheet – be sure to uncheck the “Fit to Page” box in your printer pop-up box.

If you’d like to design your own labels and tags, please don’t be intimidated. It usually takes me for.ever. to do anything graphic design-like, but I designed both of these label sheets without any prior experience in less than 30 minutes (which included searching online and purchasing the additional graphics that I wanted for the project). It is completely do-able!

And now for the hot cocoa ingredients list. For each 12-oz. mason jar, I layered:

1/4 cup nonfat, dry milk

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

dash of salt

mini-chocolate chips

mini-marshmallows

The milk, cocoa powder, salt, and sugar will mix with 1 cup of boiling water to make a standard hot cocoa. Other toppings such as the marshmallows and chocolate chips will greatly increase the richness of the drink. Amounts can be adjusted for your personal preference or other toppings like crushed peppermints, caramels, or toffee bits can be substituted. And while the hot cocoa can be mixed directly in the mason jar, please do so with caution as the glass jar does not provide insulation between the boiling water and your delicate hands!

Before you go…

Avery is so generously offering a $100 Visa Gift Card to one lucky reader. To be entered to win, please leave me a comment and tell me:

When are labels typically useful for you?

Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods: a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “”#SweepstakesEntry””; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post” c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from 11/11/13 – 12/15/13. Be sure to visit the Avery Labels Page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Grace started Kindergarten yesterday. I was so happy for her to finally get to follow in her big sister’s footsteps and head off to school every day. She has been waiting so many years – it was hard on my mom heart, though. She came home quite pleased with her new friend success rate, then sat down at her grandma’s kitchen table and wrote out cat, mat, rat, and sat. She packed up her paper and said she wanted to take it to show her teacher the next day – yep, that sounds about right. Warm up time is all of 10 seconds and she is off! Olivia started third grade and was all smiles. This was the first year that she didn’t feel nervous or cling to me for dear life. I am so proud of the confident little girl she has become. She gave me some extra snuggles at bedtime and was chatting a mile a minute about all the ins and outs of third grade. I love love seeing her like this. Little Addie is anxiously awaiting the start of the preschool year and I’m working out this new schedule – it’s such an exciting time, the beginning of a new school year. The girls obliged to all the first day of school photos I could squeeze in before we hopped in the car.

I made some printable “chalkboard signs” for the first day of school. Couldn’t resist the trend! I know a lot of peeps have already headed back, but just in case you still have another precious week or two of summer vacation, you can download the chalkboard signs below – just click on the grade level you need, save the image that opens up, and print! And best wishes for an amazing school year!

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It is my hope that you will find inspiration on the Girl. Inspired. blog. All photos are copyright protected by Girl. Inspired. If you wish to share something that you have seen here, I am absolutely thrilled! Please use only one picture with a direct link back to the project you are referencing. Thank you so much for your understanding!